Javed Rana
Press TV, Islamabad
Thousands of angry people have poured out into the streets in the city of Rawalpindi near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to condemn the UAE government over its move to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, which the protesters described as an illegal apartheid regime.
Similar mass rallies were also held in other major urban centers across Pakistan.
The protesters called “the UAE-Israel nexus” an attempt to create adverse political conditions to compel other Muslim countries to follow suit, and hence, systematically surrender the rights of Muslims to regain the territorial hold over the third holiest Islamic site of al-Quds Sharif, which Israel occupied in its 1967 war with Arab countries.
Islamabad has officially reacted to the UAE’s decision to normalize ties with Israel, arguing that “Pakistan has an abiding commitment to the full realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination.”